Matlacha 03/26-03/29

03/26
Today we are heading over to Matlacha (pronounced Matt-la-shea) neat Fr Myers FL.  It is less than 100 miles so we are in no hurry.  We have made friends with our neighbors here in Bradenton and we really like this area so it is a little hard to leave so soon.
We have to get on the I-75 again hopefully there won't be any accidents today.  We finally arrive in Matlacha but can't find the street we are suppose to turn down for the RV park.  We ended up going all the way to Pine Island in order to turn around.  Time to trust the GPS!  We couldn't find it because there is NO STREET SIGN on it and it doesn't even look like a road.
We are staying at the Sugar Sand RV Resort.  It is very small and they back us right in the end spot.  Didn't think there would be room but we fit just fine.  This RV park is right on the Bay and everything in town is walking distance.

We discovered we made a costly mistake, we are a day late in getting here.  It is the 26th and we should of been here on the 25th.  When we registered at the Sarasota RV park they asked if we had the week with a free day, Joe said yes, but what he didn't think about is that it is a week plus one day.  Oh well live and learn.






03/27
Today is spent in Ft Myers touring the Edison/Ford winter residence.  I didn't know that Henry Ford worked for Edison and they became great friends and bought winter homes next to each other along with Harvy Firestone.  What a combination of inventors that group turned out to be!


The house pictured on the left is the Edison house and the one on the right is the Ford house.

Edison was quite the gardner and the grounds are beautiful.  Full of trees and plants that do well next to the bay.  They were also the first in Ft Myers to have an in ground swimming pool.


 Fig tree,  Coconut Palm and at the bottom is the Banyon tree.

On to the Museum for Edison's inventions.  All his light bulbs, and phonographs and all sorts of things are in this building.  It is pretty cool to watch the silent movies that he made with his movie projector.  Most amazing & fascinating of all was the cyndrical phonograph record (center of left picture and player in center photo) which played off a cylinder instead of a flat record.  I can't recall ever seeing one of these before.

03/28                                                                                                                                                           

This morning we walked over to the Perfect Cup for breakfast.  We have heard from several people that this is a great place for breakfast.  They were right.  I had a sausage and pepper jack cheese       omelet that was huge and delicious, Joe had their blueberry pancakes.   After we eat we take a walk around town.  It is very  60's ish with all their bright colored houses and flea market shops.                                                     

                

                               

 We take a drive back to Pine Island and drive from on side of it to the other with the Gulf on both sides.  It is not very far across.    It is really pretty here, there are a lot of nurseries here with all kinds of trees an plants.                                                                                                                                     

Back home we just laze around then Joe goes to the races in Punta Gorda.  Once he comes back home we walk over to Bert's Bar and Grill to see the Hypnotical's.  They are a pretty good band that we heard our first night here at the Fish House.  They play surf / rock a billy type music.  They have a very good stand up Bass player.  Very animated and reminded me so much of Shannon.  

                    

03/29                                                                                                                                                           Not much going on today.  Time to get ready to leave Matlacha.  Joe goes over to the rec center to watch the NASCAR race at Martinsville.     It is a great place to watch the race, the back is open to the bay and nice breezes blow through.  You can see the Dolphin's swim up the bay  and watch the pelicans catch fish.  Very difficult to concentrate on the race when you constantly run out on the dock to watch a group of Dolphins playing in the bay.  A nice ending to our last day here.